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Probe launched into ‘disgraceful’ water cut

A Thessaloniki prosecutor has ordered a wide-ranging investigation into the reasons why the aging main water pipe supplying the city burst last Tuesday, leaving thousands of people without water for days.

The regional governor of Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, said on Monday that the situation was a “disgrace” and slammed government ministers for turning a blind eye to the problem.

The water supply slowly began to resume at the weekend but the problem also triggered a war of words between the government and opposition parties.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the government was “incompetent” for not pre-empting the damage to the main pipe and that it should have sacked Infrastructure Minister Christos Spirtzis and the leadership of Thessaloniki Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYATH).

The government responded that conservative governments over the decades had done nothing to maintain the 40-year-old pipe.